God promises to be "a very present help in time of trouble." Yet God disappears from time to time, or so it seems to us. If our life's goal is peace, unexpectedness is a curse. If it's adventure and advance we seek, unexpectedness can be a blessing. Either way, our objective as people of God is to develop a faith that under God all things — even the unexpected — work together for good. I've grown to believe that this is how God means it all to work. Peace may not be the aim of life. Until death, each moment brings something new. Our God is multisided, no longer merely a god of sun and rain, crops and blight, death and life, war and peace. God is God of all these things, certainly, but much more. The promise of a final loving peace is not a guarantee that I won't grow bored or be confronted by a seemingly insurmountable challenge.
The rest of this article is only available to subscribers.
© 2013 Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
